Formula 1 is coming back to Africa, and South Africa wants to make sure everyone knows it has a front-row seat. Days after Rwanda was officially announced as an F1 host nation, targeting a purpose-built circuit in Bugesera for the early 2030s, South African government spokesman and head of public diplomacy Clayson Monyela pushed back firmly against the idea that his country had lost any kind of race.
Monyela took to social media to set the record straight. "The narrative that South Africa 'lost' Formula 1 to Rwanda is a misinterpretation of how the global F1 calendar operates," he wrote, adding that the two countries are not even competing for the same window. South Africa's bid committee has its sights set on 2028 or 2029, backed by corporate support and actively moving forward, according to Monyela.
South Africa's sports minister Gayton McKenzie echoed that confidence last week in a message that managed to congratulate Rwanda while making a pointed argument of his own. "We are happy for Rwanda's 2030 F1," he wrote. "They have worked on it longer than SA and deserve it. Remember though that one country, Italy, has had two F1s a year, and some react like a continent of 55 countries can only get one. SA will get F1, even before 2030."
There is a slight tension worth sitting with here. F1's own official statement about the Rwanda deal described it as the sport's return to Africa "for the first time since 1993," a framing that does not leave obvious room for South Africa slipping in first. Whether the calendar math works out the way Pretoria hopes, the next few months of negotiations will tell the real story.
Originally published by African Business.